As I mentioned in an earlier blog – as of the 1st of May 2009 there is a new syllabus for the ITIL V3 Foundation and ITIL V3 Foundation Bridge exam. This new syllabus is a result of the global review and lots of feedback from many students, training providers and examination institutes.

The biggest comment was that the Foundation program was basically ‘too much information’ for a 3- day course and the regional representatives spent 2 days talking about a better way of teaching this Foundation level of the ITIL V3 Service Management program.

Based on this feedback and these discussions, APMG created a new syllabus for the Foundation and Foundation bridge exam and a completely new set of examination questions that are in line with the syllabus. The accredited training providers received the new syllabus and two sample exams to prepare their new course materials to be in line with the new formal exams.

A quick check with a number of providers shows that from the 1st of July the percentage of successful candidates has decreased quite dramatically for Foundation exam participants. Also – the average results has dropped from 85% -90% to as low as 70 percent.

Now – as training providers we do NOT have access to the real exam questions (and that’s a good thing, as it keeps the training separate from the exam. It ensures that your certification is independent from the training), the only thing we have to go on is the syllabus, exam requirements and the sample exam. This drop in number of successful candidates is something that is being investigated by a number of training providers.

IF you are one of the candidates that sat your Foundation exam AFTER the 1st of May 2009 and you feel that the exam was quite different from the course materials and the sample exam. In other words – you feel that the course and sample exam did not give you a true indication of what the real exam was like – contact your training provider and let them know!

Every 4 months there is a formal review of exam results to assess if the exam and/or syllabus needs to be updated.. all feedback is important, so speak up!